CINCINNATI—With 16 tackles against the Steelers in a nationally televised game, Bengals rookie outside linebacker Vontaze Burfict said he received plenty of calls and texts from people after the game.

Burfict has exceeded expectations. In five starts he is second on the team in tackles with 62 and the coaching staff has been pleased with how quickly he has adapted to the weakside (outside) spot after playing in the middle throughout his college career.

Marvin Lewis likes the amount of tackles Burfict has made but wants to see other improvements as well. Lewis pointed out Burfict had some errors in the Steelers game, without elaborating on them, but that he does fly around the ball and is mostly in the right spots.

The defensive coaches have also been pleased with his aptitude for the game. Had Thomas Howard not been injured before the Week 2 game against Cleveland, it's likely Burfict would have moved into the middle linebacker spot by now. With Rey Maualuga in the last year of his contract and continuing to struggle, it's conceivable to think Burfict is the team’s middle linebacker of the future.

One who isn’t ready to declare that yet though is Lewis.

“(Maualuga) didn’t play as well yesterday as he played over the last couple weeks. But with some of it, it looks like he’s not playing as well because other people aren’t doing what they’re supposed to be doing, and he’s actually doing what he is supposed to be doing most of the time,” Lewis said. “To the layman who’s sitting there watching, or whoever is being critical of Rey, they’re probably being overly critical.

"Nobody’s going to tell me more about playing linebacker than what I know. So there’s a lot of good things he’s doing. Do we want him to play better and be the best linebacker in the National Football League? I sure do. And we’ll keep coaching him to be that.”